Re: K-Pg extinction global firestorms

[David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

> Bent Lindlow

Lindow.

> And according to Phillips et.  all (2009) four separate paleognath
> lineages survived the K-T event.

So? What calibration dates did they use?

et al. = et alii = and others

> As your reference, Brown and  van Tuinen (2011) note in figure 12.1,
> anseriforms and  galliforms may have diverged 80 mya.

Again, based on what evidence?

*Vegavis*, itself less than 70 Ma old, doesn't count anymore: the latest 
phylogenetic analysis of Mesozoic birds (part of the redescription of 
*Chaoyangia*; Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, online-early; Jingmai 
O'Connor is one of the authors, probably the first) finds it outside of 
what should be called Gallanseres. (Possibly even outside Neornithes, 
because there aren't any other neornitheans in the matrix.)

> If we bear in mind that bird  fossils are extremely rare and that the
> record is skewed, it is wholly plausible that Lithornithids and/or
> Palaeotididae (in which Mayr included Remiornis) simply dispersed
> into Eurasia after the K-T, and that ostriches could have arisen in
> Africa and dispersed into Eurasia

But there are no ostrich fossils in Africa before the Miocene, while 
there's at least *Palaeotis* in Europe.

> along island chains, a route  has been hypothesized for lacertid
> lizards (Hipsley et al., 2009, BMC Evolutionary Biology).

Lizards are better transoceanic dispersers than most birds.